My dog chasing chickens. --solved!

[txredneckmedic]

if your dog kills it...inject Ipepcac into it and let the dog have it.(i know i spelled it wrong...its early here). The dog will get very sick and will throw up for a day or so. It will teach the dog not to mess with them.

 

[gottsegnet]

I think it is difficult. Some dogs just seem to naturally "know" that the flock is to be protected & not harassed, some are trainable and some can never be trusted. Growing up, we had a dog that was suspected half coyote. He had a strong prey drive, brought back rabbits, birds, squirrels all the time. I was worried about him when I got my guinea pigs because of that. He tried once to take one while I was holding it...looked like he thought I was offering him a treat!...and I said "no." He never tried again, never even looked at them again, regardless of them running about the house.

Our lab mutt was the same way. I only free range the chickens when he is out because he offers them some protection because he won't let anything on our property.

The beagle is untrainable. We've tried multiple things and my only consolation is that the few times he's gotten off, he doesn't seem to know what to do with them when he catches them. He chases the one that runs, which fortunately is the fastest, but once it is in a bush he loses interest and runs after something that will run.

I have hope for our new dog (German shorthair pointer cross). She is way too interested in them and has gotten hold of one that was dumb enough to walk up to her while I was holding her on the leash. I picked her up off the ground by her collar and she dropped it immediately. (The chick was fine, thank goodness!) Now she sits when I take her out, but her whole body shakes. I don't know that I'll ever be able to trust her, but we've only had her 3 days and at least she seems trainable and responsive to the two commands she knows (sit and no) even when something as yummy as a chicken is dancing before her! The cat taught her to back off with a single swipe. I'm sort of kind of wishing I could get a chicken to peck her.

 

[gottsegnet]

Quote:
Ha! That's hilarious, but I may try it with our new dog. Glad we don't have neighbors as I'm picturing myself rubbing a chicken in her face growling "MY CHICKEN!"

 

[dchickenman]

Do you have a crate or cage for the dog? If so, you could try "saturation". This involves putting the dog where the chickens are, ALL DAY, till basically he's sick of them (well, maybe bored with them is more accurate). Dog goes in the crate early in the morning- crate goes in the coop. Chickens go out in the run, dog in crate goes too. chickens go to bed, dog goes back in the coop with them. Take him out a couple of times BRIEFLY to do his business, once to eat (or however many times you feed him per day), and no more. You may have to make a weekend project out of it- leave him in there overnight. If he howls and cries, harden your heart! That just means he's bored, lonely, and miserable, which is what you want. I know it sounds cold-hearted, but you want him to associate the boredom with the sight, sound, and (important to dogs) smell of chickens.

It might even take a couple of sessions of "weekend with the chickens" to cure him, so don't give up too soon!

Probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway- make sure he can't get his jaws through the gaps in the wire to grab a bird, and they can't put their fool heads in there with him, in harm's way. If he actually manages to kill a chicken, it will be like a reward to him, and all your effort will have been for nothing.

Hope this helps. It's been known to work before.

 

[yomama]

Out of my five dogs, 3 of them could care less about the chickens, two of them would love to get their paws on one. When we first got the chickens, they were put into a 40'x10' run, and my two chicken obsessed ones just ran laps around it! I STRONGLY agree with the "leave it" command. I have taken over 7 different dogs through professional obedience classes, and that command has been my most useful. (It's really nice when you accidentally drop a pill or piece of people food on the floor!) I would recommend having your dog on a lead whenever it is outside where the chickens are, too. When ever she even so much as looks at the chickens, give a correction and say "leave it", then direct her elsewhere. Constitancy is everything! And yes, I use pinch collars on those two dogs for all different types of training, as well. As long as they are used correctly(short quick tugs, not long pulls on the lead) they should not hurt your dog. This is what I ended up doing with my dogs. Since my dogs where not in the same yard as my chickens, and they already knew the leave it command quite well,I didn't need to have them on a lead. However, their was just fencing seperating the chickens from my dogs. Anytime I was out in the yard, or out with the chickens, I told my dogs to "leave it" if they even got near the fence or run. So far so good. However, I have two banty mixes that have snuck into the regular yard. Surprisingly, my smaller dog didn't really care, anymore ( she is a little more sensitive to me being upset with her.) However, my bigger one was a little too interested. If I hadn't been out their, she would of chased and gotten ahold of it. The leave it command really came in handy. And trust me, she is very stubborn dog. She kept a good distance from the hen as I shooed it back into the run. I would say that I would not trust any of my dogs to be with my chickens, just in case. But maybe, this will help so your dog can at least be out with your chickens while supervised. Hope this helps!

 

[Laney]

I'm going to offer you an unorthodox method.

We have a border terrier. He is OK with our chickens, ducks and geese. His prey drive is unbelievable. We can't let him near any baby chicks, or the baby goats. He will kill anything smaller than him, including a chihuahua if it was loose. IF we let him continue to think it's prey. If we train him to believe it is not, then he will leave it alone. Depending on what it is, the training is harder at times than others. The chihuahua would take a few hours, it's a dog. The chickens took months of reminding him they were mine and exposure...the ducks...well that's the story and the method I wanted to share.

Brodie would not leave the ducks alone, he was constantly chasing them into the pond, and would occasionally fall in because he could not stop himself. The edge of the pond is only about 6 inches deep. Brodie is about 14" tall. He weighs about 20lbs. Do not think because of his size he couldn't harm a chicken or duck. His breed was created to follow foxes into their dens kill them and drag them out. Seeing him in full prey drive I have no doubt he could do that.

We got very sick of him chasing the poor ducks and geese into the pond, and my husband was determined to break him of the habit. I had been whistle training him to return to the house whenever he heard my police whistle. The training was going very well except when he was in prey mode, he ignored me. So, when Brodie chased the ducks or geese, my husband started to scoop him up and would throw him 10 feet out into the pond where it was over his head. Brodie hates the water. After 6 or 8 trips into the pond Brodie stopped chasing the ducks and geese all together.

I'm thinking a $10 kiddie pool and a nice training leash would do the trick for you. I don't think Min Pins like the water either.

Also with the chickens, We desensitized Brodie by having him on a leash, one person holding Brodie and the treats. The other person holding a chicken. This way the chicken was protected and calmed. We would put Brodie in a sit and if he looked at the chicken we would jerk the leash and call his name. When he looked at the person who called his name he would get a treat. Then in 15 seconds another treat, 15 seconds another treat etc to hold his attention away from the chicken. Occasionally the person with the chicken would try to draw his attention away from the treats by petting the chicken etc. Jerk the leash, call his name and give a treat when his attention is on you and not the chicken. We used a portion of his kibble for treats to help keep his weight down. We would do this in 10-15minute sessions every day for a few weeks. Eventually he would realize that he wasn't supposed to look at the chickens. That not looking at the chickens pleased us and got him treats. Whenever he ignores chickens we praise him and give him treats.

Now my terrier dog could actually have a chicken walk on his head and wouldn't touch it. If only I could train my inlaws chicken killer dog this way. Maybe I need to try the shock collar trick mentioned above. We have the shock collar..just didn't have the method.

Laney

 

[mdbokc]

Never heard of an anti-bark collar. Like the "sound" of that! Lots of good ideas on this thread. Time to make a bookmark.

 

[cobrien]

Quote:
I've read a few posts here that are in very good agreement with things I've learned from dog trainers (and from dogs). The above technique sounds great. Also, the idea of blocking the view of the chickens if you are doing some training with the dog outside. Our dog trainer did this in class with some dogs that had short attention spans and were easily distracted by other dogs walking by (we were at an animal shelter). She would move these dogs to spots that had limited visibility. It worked wonders. I would definitely try both of these techniques. I disagree that the prey drive can't be broken - most people don't go through the effort it takes. I really think it can be done, especially in your case since kiwi has a great foundation of basic obedience. let us know how it goes!

 

[yomama]

Quote:
Not to get off of the subject, but my anti bark collars are a God-send! My dogs fight through the fence with my neighbor's dog when they aren't wearing theirs. When they are wearing the bark collars, they just look at the neighbor's dog!

 

[kaddidle]

if your dog kills it...inject Ipepcac into it and let the dog have it.(i know i spelled it wrong...its early here). The dog will get very sick and will throw up for a day or so. It will teach the dog not to mess with them.

I'd venture to say that this method wouldn't work on a lot of dogs. Mine have eaten things that made them sick (dead rats, poop, garbage) many times and have never been deterred from eating the same disgusting thing the next time they found it.​